Automatic vending through the use of vending machines is well known. Such machines include candy and snack machines which dispense candy bars, bagged candies, chips and the like in packaged portions for a price determined by the operator of the vending machine. In actual operation, a customer might insert coins or currency equalling or exceeding the price of the desired item and then press a selection button or buttons to select the item. The vending machine dispenses the item and returns the customer's change, if any is owed.
Such machines are highly advantageous, but suffer from a number of drawbacks. For example, loading such machines can be tedious and time consuming as a full vending machine may store hundreds or even thousands of individual items. Further, the potential working volume of most typical vending machines is not very efficiently used as a substantial portion of that volume consists of unutilized air space.
Additionally, a customer of a typical vending machine is limited to selecting a portion or multiple portions defined by someone else. If a customer wants less or more of a product, or a different mix of product, he or she is presently limited to the predetermined portions in the predetermined mix stocked in the machine. Alternatively, if a customer has a given amount of money, unless that amount matches the price of the item, it is not presently an option to buy as much product as one has money. If the customer has less than the minimum item cost, no product can be purchased. In each of the above situations, customer satisfaction is not maximized. In several of the above cases, sales are not maximized. From the above, it can be seen that additional flexibility and selectivity can be highly desirable both to the operator and the customer.
One relatively new type of vending machine attempts to provide additional customer flexibility and selectivity in the context of vending greeting cards. One such machine is the Creata-Card computer kiosk built by American Greetings Industries, Inc. This kiosk allows a customer to choose graphics, write messages and print them on blank cards. Hallmark Cards Inc. apparently has a similar product called Touch-Screen Greetings. Although such machines employ touch screens with animated displays, they do not appear to shed much light on the automatic bulk vending of consumable items such as candy and other snacks suited to bulk vending.
Manual bulk vending is also well known. By way of example, candy stores, grocery stores and movie theaters often have bulk containers of candy and other items that can be selected and bagged, or otherwise put in containers, by customers. The manually selected items are then priced and sold based upon the weight of the item taken. Such systems are not automatic and are susceptible to concerns with respect to maintaining proper sanitary control of the items sold, as the maintenance of sanitary conditions depends on the customers following the rules. Of course, this does not always happen.